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Naruto Ninja Council: European Version – DS

It’s a beat ’em up game featuring more than 40 missions and 20 playable characters straight from the show. The first lot of missions will have you jumping around and punching up all sorts of Naruto-fodder. Each one is self-contained and there is only ever a single objective - be it to find 10 scrolls, defeat 10 wolves, or pass through 10 checkpoints within a limited time.

There is no story and hence no real purpose for each of these events, though, thus it does become somewhat repetitive once you realise that all the levels play out in roughly the same way, but with slightly different backdrops, music and enemies. But if you’re a fan, you’ll lap up the authentic material.

Later on, the levels will be geared towards dual-screen arena battles, ditching the frequent collect-a-thons. Here the game looks like the best DS fighting game never released outside Japan: Jump! Ultimate Stars. Your sole goal is usually to bring your opponent into submission. Naruto and a whole heap of other characters can be used in any of the missions, but apart from cosmetic differences, they all play similarly making the game easy to get into, but not as complex as other 2D fighters. There are also special abilities called Jutsu that can be unleashed once you have built up sufficient Chakra power. Each fighter has their own unique Jutsu straight out of the show and they are generally well done and fun to watch. If you have friends that like Naruto and who own a DS, there’s a fair bit of replay value here once you’re done with the rather short main game.

All in all, this is a good Naruto game if you’re a fan of the blonde-haired ninja.